The Marshal Unleashed at Midnight

Chapter 006

In a lavish bedroom, Julian had just finished his fun for the evening and was leaning back against the headboard, cigarette in hand, when the phone beside him buzzed to life.

"Hello? Natalie."

He picked up, and only then did it occur to him that he'd been so absorbed in his own pleasure that he had forgotten to arrange Gordon's surgery. A flicker of guilt crossed his face.

"Julian, did you call Dr. Finch?" Natalie's voice came through the line.

"Uh... yeah, of course I called him." Julian blinked, the lie sliding smoothly off his tongue. "Thing is, the old man's out of town for some conference, can't get back anytime soon. I'm already working on lining up another specialist for you guys..."

"What did you just say?"

Before he could finish, Natalie's furious voice cut him off. "Out of town for a conference? Julian, you liar! Dr. Finch is standing right here with us. You never called him at all, did you?"

"What?"

Caught off guard by how fast the lie unraveled, Julian swallowed hard. "That can't be right. I, I couldn't reach him, someone told me he was away, must've been a misunderstanding."

"You bastard! You're still going to deny it after all that?" Natalie's voice shook with rage. "My father is lying in a hospital bed with his life on the line, and this is how you jerk us around? Do you have any conscience left at all?"

"Watch your mouth, you little bitch. You dare talk to me like that?" Julian's humiliation curdled instantly into fury. "You think I don't know about you and Adrian? We're getting married next month, and you're out there flaunting your affair right under my nose? I'm warning you, Natalie, don't push your luck. I'll have someone cripple that little punk first, then I'll make sure your whole Sinclair family regrets ever crossing me!"

The line went dead.

For a long moment, no one in the hospital room said a word.

"Could it be... that he's..." Gordon's mind was finally catching up. His eyes widened as he stared at the man who had just saved his life.

"That's him, that's the one." Lorraine shook her head, her face pale. "That's Adrian. The one who ruined our daughter's reputation, the one whose little scandal sent you to the hospital with a heart attack in the first place."

The confirmation hit Gordon like a blow. He stood frozen, utterly stunned.

The master whose single treatment with the Nine Needles of Umbra had pulled him back from the brink of death, the man whose skill had left both him and Dr. Finch in awe, was the same man who had set off this disaster, the sworn enemy of the Sinclair family?

And the "good son-in-law" they had trusted and leaned on, Julian, had treated his father-in-law's life as a joke, piling lie on lie?

What kind of twisted mess had their lives turned into?

"Gordon, so your family already knew the master, did you?" Dr. Finch broke the silence first, letting out an awkward laugh. "No wonder he was so set on getting you treated. Guess I owe you for the chance to witness the Nine Needles of Umbra myself. A young man of such talent, and you know him personally. You've gone up in my estimation."

"Your department is voting on a new department head, isn't it? You're more than qualified. Consider it settled. And if I ever run into a case I can't crack, I'll count on you to put in a word with the master for me."

With that, Dr. Finch gave the group a nod and strode off at a brisk pace.

He had no intention of getting dragged into the Sinclair family's private affairs.

"They wanted him as department head?"

Gordon stood there, dazed, long after the old doctor disappeared down the hall.

He had been certain that offending Julian meant his career was finished. Instead, thanks to nothing more than Adrian's reputation, the position had fallen into his lap.

For a moment, Gordon couldn't decide whether to laugh or cry.

"The Sinclairs sure have some nerve, holding out this long without crawling to beg me," Deborah said, walking down the corridor beside her daughter. Camille's face wore its usual sneer of contempt. "Gordon's probably about to die anyway. Let's see how much longer they can keep up the act."

"I will never let the Sinclair family off easy." Camille's cheek was still swollen from earlier, and she bit down hard, her voice venomous. "Natalie and Adrian especially. I'm going to make the two of them kneel down and lick my shoes clean. Wait, what's going on up there?"

The Ashford women both froze mid-step, staring down the hallway in disbelief.

Gordon was walking toward them, looking healthier than most people who had never set foot in a hospital. How was he out here? Shouldn't he be unconscious in a hospital bed, barely clinging to life?

"Here to enjoy the show?" Adrian said, noticing the two of them, his mouth curling into a cold smile.

"What's it to you?!" Camille shot back.

Deborah rolled her eyes. "We come and go as we please. Who do you think you are? This isn't your place to talk."

"Gordon," Adrian said, "is this the caliber of staff in your department?"

He shook his head slowly, disgust plain on his face. "Turning a personal grudge into a work matter, ignoring a critical patient, and demanding a massive bribe on top of it. Scum like this, and you keep her on staff?"

Gordon blinked, still groggy. He had no idea what had happened while he was unconscious.

Lorraine caught on immediately. The memory of what the Ashford women had done came rushing back, and fury sharpened her voice.

"Gordon, fire her right now!" she snapped. "A doctor who won't do her job, who leaves you to die to throw her weight around, who made our daughter kneel and then demanded fifty thousand dollars! What kind of person is that?"

"Is that true?!"

Shock and rage flashed across Gordon's face. He knew how dangerous his condition had been. What Deborah had done was no different from trying to let him die.

"Deborah, I never imagined you had such a rotten heart."

He straightened his back, his expression hardening. "Get out. Harborcrest Medical Center doesn't need a doctor like you."

"Oh, listen to you." Deborah sneered. "Who do you think you are, giving me orders? With my qualifications, that department head position is mine. Keep talking like this and the first thing I'll do is have you demoted to the IV room."

Her phone buzzed in her hand as she spoke. She glanced down at the screen out of habit, and her face went pale.

It was a group announcement from Dr. Finch.

"Notice: regarding the selection of department head for the ER, following discussion among the hospital leadership, the position will be assigned to Dr. Sinclair, effective immediately."

"No. That's impossible."

Deborah's hands shook as she snapped her head up, eyes blazing. "Gordon, did you pull strings behind my back? Did you bribe someone? That position was supposed to be mine!"

"Don't you dare throw baseless accusations. Do you think everyone is as shameless as you are?" Gordon looked at her with open contempt. "Everyone in the department knows you tried to bribe the hospital leadership, and that Dr. Finch refused to touch your bribe. If I'm department head now, it's thanks to your family. You were too blind to see what you had, and you tore it apart when you turned on Adrian."

"Adrian?" Deborah froze. "What does that useless man have to do with any of this?"

"You really don't know, do you?" Gordon said. "He's the one who saved my life. His skill left Dr. Finch speechless, and the old man offered to become his student on the spot."

Lorraine cut in, chin lifted. "Because of him, Dr. Finch didn't hesitate for a second to hand Gordon the department head position. You looked down your noses at everyone, mocking my daughter for marrying trash. Who's blind now?"

Silence fell like a dropped stone.

Camille and Deborah stood frozen, the words refusing to sink in.

Deborah especially could not process it. The son-in-law she had despised, the broke man who couldn't even scrape together a bride price, was some kind of medical genius.

Regret crashed over her all at once. If she hadn't opened her mouth and demanded that fifty thousand dollars, she wouldn't be standing here watching Gordon take the position that should have been hers.

"Adrian, do you want to get back together with me?"

Camille, who had stayed silent until now, suddenly spoke up. "I'll give you a chance. Get Gordon removed from that position, put my mother in his place, and I'll forget everything that happened between us."